Posted on October 12, 2020 Good conditions for Beach Brawl Nick Honachefsky got lucky with his second annual Barrier Island Beach Brawl as there was a nice weekend for surfcasting before a blowout Monday. His wrap-up follows: “Thank you to all participants, sponsors, tackle shops and facebook groups who made the 2nd Annual Barrier Island Beach Brawl a success! We were blessed with friendly surf and the bite was on. While hundreds of fish were caught, at the end the leaderboard reflected the heaviest of the brawlers. In the Locals Classics category, 1st place went to Nick Petries’s 6.04 pound bluefish, 2nd was Nick Duefemia’s 4.38 pound blue and 3rd was claimed by Jenni Ackerman’s 4.32 pound blackfish. In the Wildcard bracket, 1st went to Zach Vendettis 4.17-pound triggerfish, 2nd was taken by Nick Petrie’s 1.91-pound trigger and 3rd was won by Cole Speiser’s .87 pound kingfish. There were 6 Photo/Release striped bass in the tourney and the Mystery Fish (catch) went to John Westerdale with his live bat, yes the flying mammal, that got tangled in his line. ” Another “winner” in the contest was St. Gregory’s Pantry in Point Pleasant which received a bag of fish fillets donated by the participants. The gale watch stays in effect until midnight. Tuesday starts with east winds at10-15 knots plus patchy fog and showers. Seas of 6-9 feet drop to 4-7 feet in the afternoon when the wind shifts to north at 5-10 knots. The surf will be dirty. and may take one or two tide changes before cleaning up as winds go to the calming west. Hopefully this storm may bring in a first charge of migrating stripers from the east. .Chuck Many did find a few large migratory stripers that hit his trolled eels a few days ago, Bob Matthews, at Fisherman’s Den in Belmar Marina, is looking for an improvement in slow surfcasting after the storm, and notes that kingfish are still biting in Shark River.